Wheaton Fire Dept. fundraiser set for Thursday

A fundraiser benefiting the Wheaton Fire Department will be held on Thursday.

Todd G. Higdon

WHEATON — A fundraiser benefiting the Wheaton Fire Department will be held on Thursday.

The band Black Moods from Los Angeles, Calif., will host a concert at the Wheaton City Park.

The concert is free of charge, but there will be donation boxes set up, various concessions and merchandise available. Proceeds from the event will go back to the fire department.

"I am pretty good friends with the lead singer (Josh Kennedy) of the (Black Moods) band, they are originally from Wheaton," said Taylor Lombard, training officer with the fire department.

The fire department will be selling hot dogs for $1.50, hamburgers for $2 and drinks for $1.

"We will also have chips, etc., along with watermelon for sale," he said. "The concert will be a family friendly event."

The Second Chance Band, Springfield, Mo., will open the concert at 5:30 p.m. They will play for around an hour and a half, then Black Moods will play at 7 p.m. Lombard said that Black Moods plays rock and roll, from the 1970s and up.

Fireworks will be set off immediately following the show. People are encouraged to bring lawn chairs.

Asked how excited the fire department is to have this band coming back to help raise funds for the fire department, Lombard said, "I am really excited, I think that they (Black Moods) are going to bring a lot of people. Whenever they come back home, they bring in quite a few people. We are hoping to get a bunch of people there, make some money."

This is the first time the fire department has had a July 4 fundraiser. However, every August, they have hosted the annual barbecue in the city park as well – their major fundraiser.

This year, that fundraiser will be held on Saturday, Aug. 24.

"We don't have any paid members at all," Lombard said. "We are strictly membership, we don't get any tax money at all, it is all from people outside of the city in our district that pay yearly dues. We have fuel to pay, training and equipment. A single set of bunker gear runs more than $2,000. A truck is going to run you $200,000 to $500,000, there is a lot of expenses and the only way that we can really make any money for that is mainly the barbecue that we have Aug. 24."